This week’s Form and Genre Challenge is to write a Tanka. A Tanka is a five line Japanese poem which uses 31 syllables in all. This is my first attempt at writing a Tanka although I have tried my hand at the shorter Haiku form before. For this challenge I wrote several different Tankas. Below are the four I submitted to my beta readers. The top one, written in honour of my daughter’s 20th birthday, is my challenge entry.

Small and fragile in my arms now small, not fragile twenty years on still such joy. Soon roles reversed as me she cradles in her arms.

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This one was written after last week’s Wales v France rugby match. Before the game I sang alone – I was the only Welshman present – the Welsh national anthem much to the surprise of most of the gathered Frenchmen:

All are beautiful. I love the impact of your Welsh voice on the French, would have loved to have seen it. Your selection for the contest reminds me of a children’s book given to me on the birth of my first born: I’ll love you forever. It starts with the mother caring for her son, and ends with the son caring for his mother. Love this image in your Tanka.

Thanks everyone for all your kind comments. I think I’m going to love this kind of short poem. I’ve included a few in my personal journal over the past few days. They seem so appropriate to journalling and capturing a moment.